Play Dead!
by Impressive Haruki
Summary: "When he woke up that morning, if he had been told that he was going to be naked and holding Kagome to him in the square footage of a coffin, he would have punched the person in the jaw. And yet, here he was." (Limes!)


So there's a new kid around here… That'd be me. I've lurked and stalked many 'a story 'round here and yet I've only just now got the itch to upload one of my own. Don't worry, though, this one has been preened and ready to go for quite some time. This is a smutty little one-shot I've had nagging in my head for a while. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Also, I understand that my portrayal of some investigative services may be erroneous. Nod and accept. Good reader!

I intend to keep them as in-character as possible. I imagine this as just another episode in the series. Any interesting titles for this 'episode'?

I'm going to rate this M for some sexual situations, but as of yet, there are no lemons in the story. Wipe your acidic tears, the limes will be abound.

Play Dead!

_My name is Kagome Higurashi. I am a middle school student, though I really hope that I can change that with a good score on the upcoming high school entrance exams. But due to my constant travelling to the Feudal Era, that dream of mine is slipping further and further from my grasp. And yet... here I am. _

The three-day cram session was officially over when Kagome handed back the four sets of notes to her friends and rushed in to her seat to await that test booklet's drop onto her desk. While the administrator explained the rules of the test, something about two hours with extra time if needed, Kagome sat hunched with her shoulders pinned to her ears. Her pencil was in a dangerous position between her molars. "...And above all," the teacher continued, "cheating will be dealt with swiftly and will not be tolerated." The pencil was bitten in half. The splinters spread like confetti across Kagome's cold desk. Good thing she'd brought four more, just in case.

"You may begin." The jet-headed girl's engines fired up and she went to scrawling the jumble of formulas in her mind anywhere she could.

* * *

"How long did you say Kagome was going to be gone for again, Inuyasha?" Shippo asked for the tenth time that day. He never intended to have it come out as whiny, but to the dog's ears it was no less a squeal than an oversized mosquito. The kitsune earned a fist to the head and no set of warm arms or a "sit's" revenge to comfort him.

"Quit askin', would 'ya?!" Inuyasha snarled, rolling back on his side away from the others. He didn't really want to be alone at the moment due to the recently inflicted snag in his usually unwavering confidence in his own strength, so he didn't leave the porch of Kaede's hut. It did nothing but piss him off further and set him on edge. However, the idea of being alone was growing more and more appealing.

Sango was actually just as curious as Shippo and chimed in, "Didn't she say she would be back in three days' time?" It was the morning of the fourth. Kagome must have not included the actual test date in her cram-cation. Sango's knees folded together, supporting her arm that held her head. "Perhaps you could run and bring her back?"

"No, thank you," he snorted half-heartedly, jaws parted in a yawn. "She's always like this." In truth, he did wish to bring her back, but his pride was just all too damaged. Swallowing it might have choked him. His right eye was pulsating, but did all he could to hide this dull and outright annoying pain. The palm propping him up covered it, at least.

"Please, Inuyasha?" The kitsune begged with his best wide-eyed expression. He didn't see it and even if he had, Inuyasha would not have been fazed in the least. He made no response in a pointed effort to ignore the imp. Only the tensing of stress under his shoulder-blades was Shippo's indication he'd been heard.

_Really, he can be so stubborn sometimes. He got hurt in battle; haven't we all? _Slightly frustrated with Inuyasha's gruffness, Sango made an agitated sound in the back of her throat and mumbled just under her breath, "You could set your pride aside…"

The phrase, completely heard by sensitive ears, struck a chord enough to haul him out of silence. "Keh! What are you…!" He stopped. That sensitive nose of his twitched at a sudden, sharp pinch at its end. Growling, he smacked his free palm against his face and sat up. "Myoga," he stated to the thing fluttering down to the folds of his hand.

"Master Inuyasha!" Cried the little old flea, who stood erect and made himself look as stately as possible when he popped into his three-dimensional self. "Really, must we always meet with such hostility?" the old man sighed, then quickly continued when he noticed the eight eyes staring at him and the growl coming from one set. Straightening his strange garment that housed extra arms, he cleared his throat, "I relayed what happened back to Master Totosai." The room became quiet, all waiting to hear the news of what the old man had to say.

The allusion to that damned bloody demon -the one that looked like the spawn of a platypus mother and a rat father- made the humans shudder and the half-demon snarl in indignation.

Said hanyou recalled the fight that happened several days before in a flash behind his eyes. The search for the jewel shards had been trudging along when the cue came from Kagome that there was one in the vicinity. That's when they came across it. What a weak creature that thing was! How was it that it was able to put even Inuyasha out of commission? It seemed like such one of those hundreds and hundreds of those easy demons that he had slewn before, even with the jewel shard embedded in its back. Ugly and weak was the kind of demon that they wished to face when it came to collection of the jewel fragments; These traps concerning Naraku and his henchmen were tedious and terrifying, especially when they all seemed to place Kagome exactly in the way of danger.

The hanyou had sneered, swinging Tetsuaiga over his shoulder and waited for the thing to take notice of him and lunge blindly to its certain death. He battled alone with the thing, the others not seeing any need to take action themselves. Inuyasha certainly looked like he had things covered. It shrieked at his claws raking against its flesh, swinging its own crude set his way in reflex. The thing may have been big –well, huge, really- but that made it all the slower.

Perhaps it had a shred of intelligence, or the lack thereof, depending on how one would look at it. Instead of focusing on the half-demon that would be its reaper with a fang for a sickle, it turned to Kagome. She was standing just adjacent to the others, who in all truth weren't paying much attention. There was no way Inuyasha wouldn't handle it. Not even a slight doubt. It was a rat to a dog, in all senses. Kagome shrieked, hunching down under folded arms at the fat paw swiping towards her.

Inuyasha's body shuttered at the memory of how he had called out her name, instinctively throwing his body over hers to protect her as he had many a' time before. The last thing he remembered was watching a large, blunt end of the demon's claw coming towards his face to meet his momentum. Then, the pain in his right eye, and the vague sensation of flying and hitting something with a distant clanking sound, then the grass cradling his body. And nothing.

It was terrifying for everyone to watch, going from unalarmed to completely abhorred by the condition Inuyasha's body was in. It grew cold so quickly and his heart ceased to beat...

_God damnit!_

"Yeah?! And what of it?" Inyuasha's claws had Myoga pinned and writhing between them. His embarrassment was clearly converted into rage, as were all of his other emotions. He desperately wanted to know what could have possibly caused him to black out like some weakling. Then murder it.

"I was getting to that!" he peeped. All six arms smoothed his tiny swatch of fabric when he was released.

"Myoga, what happened to Inuyasha? What caused him to appear so… dead?" Miroku finally spoke up, the seriousness attempting to cut through the panic they all felt in concern towards their friend. "Is there any way to resolve it?"

"He said that Inuyasha's state of suspended animation was caused -I regret to say- by the absence of his father's black pearl in his right eye." The flea paused, "Meaning it is not 'curable' per-say. It's only avoidable." They all continued to stare at the little old flea as he raised more questions than answers. "Totosai theorized that Master Inuyasha's false death was caused by being hit directly in his right eye by a blunt object. Tetsuaiga was not at his side to protect him and fill the absence of the pearl." This seemed to hit the mark, more or less. Inuyasha only remembered lunging towards Kagome to protect her from the huge squat paw, and the force of its claw ramming him against a bluff. Tetsuaiga went flying. When he woke up, Kagome was sobbing and alternating between stroking and slapping his face.

"Master Inuyasha's body," Myoga continued, "was hit in its weakest place and without the Tetsuaiga to fill it, he defaulted into a state meant to fool 'predators' into believing he was no longer worth attacking. In essence, he plays dead."

Myoga was promptly squashed.

* * *

_Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no! I don't know a single thing! Nobody's notes had anything to do with this! I don't get it! _

Kagome was making a low, kittenish growl, just audible enough for the administrator to cast her a cold glance, which she failed to see. There was so much pressure mounted on her for this very moment. It would determine whether all of her hard work - the fake excuses, the stealing away to the modern era to study, lugging unnecessary textbooks around in the Feudal Era - was to pay off or all be in vain. She snapped her third pencil, clearly irritating some other students. A quick glance at the list of marks on a few of her neighbors' answer sheets said they were far further than her puny single column. If only she could get some help.

_Wait a minute! There is help. I just need to access it. It couldn't have been all in vain, it just couldn't be! I, Kagome Higurashi, will absolutely not be held back a year! Nothing can stop this girl._

Oh she wasn't any good at this. She'd never cheated in her life, though she'd had plenty of opportunity to. Her pencil began to shake, accidentally making light marks in the wrong section. She erased with what she hadn't munched away. She glanced at the administrator, glowering at a different student. She checked her neighbor's form. It was the same as hers. She lined up where she was with their numbers, adjusting when they shifted their sheet to bubble something new in. She was so ecstatic at her new idea that she hardly bothered to take her eyes off of their sheet and let her hand naturally bubble in answers by feeling.

"Miss Higurashi."

Kagome's stomach grew cold and she looked up at the breaker of that perfect silence. She felt dozens of eyes on her. Kagome's entire world grew dark and heavy, all things suddenly blurred except this poignant fear she was being crushed under. Her face grew red and guilty real quick, "A-ah, yes?"

"Would you step into the hall with me, please?"

* * *

_Damnit! How did they manage to get me to come here? _Who was he trying to convince? He knew that he wanted to bring Kagome back. He never felt at ease when she was away from him, for reasons unfathomable to him. Leaping out of the bone-eaters well, he strolled up the shrine steps and slid the clattering wood door aside. He expected to catch Kagome's scent immediately, but only found the cold trail leading from where he stood towards the house that was several days old. He was walking towards Kagome's window to leap into it when he was stopped by a gentle, benevolent voice.

"Inuyasha? Well hello, dear. What are you doing here this afternoon?" Kagome's mother said conversationally from the front doorway, closing the gap between the two. She was carrying something in a small plastic bag.

"Eh? Oh, hey." The silver-haired man turned to face her and tucked his arms into his long draping sleeves. "Is Kagome 'round?"

"No, she's at school right now. She has a really big test today." Mrs. Higurashi lifted an index finger for effect, "It determines whether she will go on to high school!" She noted the blank expression on his face that was indicative of a lack of understanding. His golden orbs shifted to the bag in her hand and she picked up his thoughts, "Actually, I was just about to run over to her school to give her this. It's a set of notes from one of her little friends, she left it at home. Would you mind taking them to her?" She handed out the bag to him, which he accepted.

"Uh, sure." He didn't have anything else to do. Inuyasha momentarily palpated the thought of opening them to see what it was she was reading, but vaguely remembered the set of weird shapes and endless scribbling of meaningless numbers that she called _al-je-bruh. _It all made his head spin and he decided he hated that crap.

Souta had been playing with his soccer ball nearby, having been released to summer a week before the middle schoolers had been. He quickly snatched it up and ran over to Inuyasha's side and tugged his sleeve, "Oh! Can I come too, Inuyasha?" His little boy raspiness warmed Mrs. Higurashi's heart and vaguely reminded Inuyasha of a particular annoying kitsune.

"That's a wonderful idea! Souta needs something to do and some company now that school's out. Get along you two!" Mrs. Higurashi was practically pushing the two towards the stairwell to get on their way. "Oh, and Inuyasha? Could you leave your sword here? The principal saw it at the cultural festival and said he didn't like any kind of weapon on the campus. "Grudgingly, the hanyou leaned the Tetsuaiga against the door frame and continued walking with Souta. He figured this place was safe. Besides, he'd left it behind before. The forgotten soccerball rolled to her feet. She chuckled as she watched her son dash in front of, then behind the indignant hanyou, chattering on about videogames and other things he didn't comprehend.

* * *

It seemed that the gods had looked upon her with mercy.

Kagome had been escorted directly to the principal's office and had been made to state her case after a long lecture about the consequences of cheating. Some of said consequences not only included invalidating her test score but also expulsion from the school altogether, effectively ruining any inkling of a plan she may have had for her future in this era. She sat there with blind terror and unshed tears stinging her eyes. She talked about how she had been so… sick, and how difficult it was to keep up with all of the strains of school without ever being able to attend. She said she'd felt so desperate that she'd have done _anything. _The principal seemed to look upon her with understanding.

She sat in a classroom by herself, aside from the proctor of the test reading a book behind the teacher's desk. She glanced out the nearby window at all of the other students who were allowed to leave and were scuttling about the courtyard below. She sighed and chewed on her last pencil, trying to focus. From the kindness of the test administrator's heart and wallet, they had agreed to watch her after the school hours as she made up the test. "_But,"_ Kagome's stomach lurched at the sinking feeling she got when she remembered the principal's pointed warning, "_anything you do in the way of delinquent behavior will be grounds for expulsion from here on out."_

* * *

Inuyasha growled as he fiddled with the hat atop his head. Souta had given him the one he was wearing, figuring that it already fit himself so loosely that it should fit the hanyou comfortably. The clasp was locked on the outermost latch, which was hard to manipulate into place with his large claws, but it fit, if not very snugly. The half-demon stared forward with his hands tucked into his sleeves and posture erect. He made no eye-contact with the glances thrown his way by curious onlookers. Souta was going on about something to do with a sport involving kicking a ball around a court when he suddenly stopped, his sneakers making a scratching sound on the concrete. "Say, Inuyasha? How long have you and Kagome known each other?"

Earning a quirk of a dark eyebrow, Inuyasha answered suspiciously, "A year or so. Why?"

Souta was satisfied by his answer and explained, "Oh I was just wondering. Mom said she and dad knew each other the same amount of time before she had Kagome." He said it so simply and matter-of-fact, that Inuyasha had nearly missed the implications. He spluttered something incoherently, watching as the young boy clicked the button to cross the street, now completely on a different topic. The red hand changed to a symbol of a person walking and he followed Souta onto the blacktop and was vaguely aware of some people trailing behind. Inuyasha noted the big bumbling hunks of machinery that stopped at a line waiting for them, and found them suddenly extremely interesting over the thoughts that Souta had implanted in him.

Over the sound of Souta's incessant chattering, his ears swiveled under the hat to catch a young boy encouraging his elderly companion. "Come on, grandma! We're gonna miss the light," the boy tugged gently on the woman's hand, coaxing her further into the intersection. Inuyasha and Souta had nearly reached the other sidewalk when he caught sight of Kagome. And from there things seemed to move incredibly slow to the half-demon. Kagome was still for just a moment, carrying her bookbag slung over one shoulder. The next she was looking up the road from them and running his way, backpack left where she stood. She had this look of horror on her face that made his heart run cold. She was yelling something.

He turned around to see the boy, having darted past his grandmother and being equidistant from her and the trio, moments from being vehicularly slaughtered.

* * *

The young woman glanced over her wheel, seeing the light was green. Her foot stayed on the pedal, keeping a steady speed. Ah! So close, her hand grasping for the fallen object on the floor of the passenger seat. Her ponytail swung with the effort. She registered the strain of the belt against her chest and the disengaged emergency break gently prodding her neck before the screaming of metal made her airbags deploy and her body lurch.

Kagome stared in horror as the speeding driver didn't slow for the red light in the least. It was heading directly for the section of crosswalk that had a little boy occupied in it, looking eerily like Souta did at that age. She cried to Inuyasha to watch out and ran to close the gap. She gasped as he lunged his body at the little boy and knocked him clear of the speeding Toyota. Her body instinctively cringed as the high-pitched squeal of metal hit her ears like a rake to a chalkboard, and the bodily '_thud' _noise that accompanied it. She hadn't stopped running until she was crouched at his side, hands at first tentative, then exploring his torso for injuries.

A small crowd had formed, but she didn't notice. The little boy, Souta, and the old woman were in various states of disarray, all in mourning and shock. She didn't notice. The woman crawled out of the car (or what was left of it) and was also sobbing, but she didn't notice. Someone called the authorities. Kagome didn't notice. Nothing at all registered to her, nothing at all but the slight glaze of Inuyasha's lidded eyes and the black tint that covered his right iris, or what she could see of it. Blood pooled beside his face. His bones seemed to be in their correct formations. Even the position he was laying in seemed comfortable, laying prone on his back with wrists crossed at the navel.

Kagome shook her head. Inuyasha had been hit by things far scarier, more powerful, tougher than some silly little car rolling around the streets of Tokyo. There was no way something so insignificant and weak could kill him. He was… well, he was Inuyasha! He survived innumerable encounters with Sessoumaru, Naraku, Kouga, the members of the Band of Seven and countless other powerhouses. He lunged his body to save her gods knew how many times. Even in his human state he was invincible in her eyes; He'd leaped over a cliff after the sage in and came back unscathed and half-demon again.

So why was he just laying here? Why wasn't he breathing? She naturally cupped her hands over his chest and gave compressions in one-two-three, check for breathing, one-two-three. Kagome, without thinking, tilted his head back and plugged his nose before pressing her lips to his. She saw his chest his and fall with her breaths, but when she pulled away, it remained still again. The pulse of his neck was nonexistent. Compressions, breathing, compressions. Each time his lips got cooler, she could feel it.

"Ma'am, please step back!" She felt a hand on her shoulder, which she snarled at reflexively. Another set of hands joined on her other side, yet she didn't take her eyes off of him –her best friend, her protector, her source of all indignation and fun and awe and memories- even as the arms curled around her biceps and pulled her forcefully away.

They erected tape. Evening fell. The intersection was shut down while they gathered evidence. Officers questioned witnesses. Kagome answered questions listlessly as her eyes would not peel off of the silver-haired man. He was being loaded into the back of an ambulance. They threw a thin white sheet over his body. A man scribbled on a clipboard.

Kagome's attention was quickly turned back to the officer as soon as Inuyasha was out of sight. "Ma'am, would it be OK if I took you back to the station with me for some further questioning?"

Her eyes widened, suspiciously devoid of tears. "Am I under arrest?" She asked, slightly surprised. All the questions he had asked seemed like it covered the story. Besides, what was it to them anyway? She shook off the thought. _They are just doing their jobs, _she assured herself.

"No, Miss. If you don't want to go, you don't have to. We'd just like to ask you some more questions. There is also…" his voice trailed off, caught in the pity and curiosity at her odd behavior towards an obvious loved one who had died, "some counseling available to the families…"

* * *

She watched the offending car being loaded up onto a huge trailer from the window of the police car. It was accordioned, with the engine pushed pretty well against the front seat. Debris lay scattered all around the mangled hunk of metal. Kagome sat back against the leather seat. This back seat clearly wasn't designed for the hardened criminals she thought went back here. There weren't bars between her and the driver. They pulled into the parking lot before she'd realized he had turned the ignition. What was wrong with Inuyasha? Hadn't he done this before, with the lesser demon with a jewel shard? Why did this keep happening? Oh, why was he always hurt when trying to keep others safe? He couldn't actually be dead this time, could he?

No. He didn't breathe last time. He didn't have a pulse. And yet he lived until today. She shook her head furiously, startling the officer from the sudden and only movement from the girl, _No! Get that thought outta there, girl! He's fine. I just know it._

Kagome was led through some hallways, not even caring enough to memorize her way through the maze of lobbies, offices, ringing phones, and guards. She saw her mother sitting in one and swiftly ran to embrace her, tucking her head into the place of solace she'd treasured since she was infantile. Yet no tears came, only shivers. What was happening? Last time she sobbed and blubbered because she had thought him really dead. But, not truly. Shock to the point of disbelief; both aggressors were so meager and non-threatening to the strongman. No way, absolutely no way.

She pulled her head away from her mother at her name. "Miss Higurashi?"

* * *

Black hair spilled over her comfortable office chair like ink. Her arms were crossed just under her breasts, one knee stacked atop the other. Her jaw set at the young man sat across from her. He couldn't be much older than his mid 20's. He had just the faintest shadow of stubble, evident of a complete cycle of work without rest or shave. She was beginning to falter in keeping her anger to a minimum at the monotony of answering the same questions delivered in different ways over and over again. "For the last time, when I reached him, he had been hit by the car. He was pushing the little boy out of the way!"

The man adjusted some papers as if looking for something. He sure kept his office messy enough. There were papers pinned all over the place, with law books and little trinkets scattered haphazardly. It was like a sea of papers of all sorts. And she was drowning in it.

"I understand Miss Higurashi. There were numerous witnesses stating that you were running towards the victim and then he was moved in front of the car." He leaned forward, brows knitting for emphasis, "Did you push him?"

Kagome blanched. She hated the turn the conversation was turning. He silenced the ring of his phone, still expecting an answer. "What?! No! Absolutely not!" She slammed her hands on the table, "What would make you even _think _ that?"

It was clear he was a little surprised by her response, seeing as how that was the most emotion he had gotten out of her the whole sitting. Her eyes were still aflame. While he had something coming from her, he chose to exploit it, "Then would you mind telling me why you aren't upset or crying? Your lover is dead—from what you described of him." His voice softened and he watched as a blush set in to her face. "Were you guys upset with one another?" He was actually pitying her, not being able to set things right before his death in the questioner's eyes.

Kagome shook her head, being quite honest. "No. We've quarreled before, but not recently" There was something before the fight with the most recent demon, then some confrontation about her going home, but both were so insignificant that she'd disregarded them.

"So you have a perfect relationship, and yet you shed no tears for his death?"

Kagome didn't understand the answer herself. Really, how could she explain to this stranger that he is a powerful half-demon from five hundred years in the past who single-clawedly set demons to their knees for mercy? She answered as truthfully as she could, speaking gently and averting her gaze, "I… just don't believe that he's dead…"

Now that was a real emotion. He had dealt with lying, conniving people looking to get away with murder before, but this was not one of them. Besides, how could she have known that the car was going to run the red light? That didn't make any sense. There was certainly no evidence to support second-degree here. Just another tragedy. It was, as terrible as it was to say, a welcome relief from the strand of seemingly unconnected murders going on around town these past few weeks.

He excused himself from the room but Kagome didn't notice. She was lost in her thoughts and her smoldering anger over the slightest implication of her doing something so outright heinous to anyone, let alone Inuyasha. He returned a minute later, finding the girl just as he left her. "The young boy confirmed your story, Miss Higurashi." He nodded to her sadly. She still hadn't accepted the truth, it seemed.

"May I leave now?" She questioned sharply.

The young man looked to her gently, then answered, "Yes. You were never in custody." As she began to rise, he spoke a little quieter, as if sharing a secret. "Hey… if you want… I could show him to you." He winced as he caught her eye contact: Hopeful, excited. "You know, for closure."

* * *

Mrs. Higurashi and her young son were sent home with an explanation that Kagome was willingly staying for 'counseling'. She would be sent home in a cruiser when she desired. All of her needs would be cared to here. All was by choice of her daughter.

Kagome had been led down the hall by the man, whose name she learned was Kentaro, and shown to a set of solid steel doors. They stopped in front of one and she pushed it open, feeling the icy bite of it on her palm. The cold air hit her like a wall. Kentaro peered in behind her, checking that the room was safe for her to enter. He noted her backpack that had been retrieved for her and she hadn't taken off since. Deciding on not letting it be left in the pristine space he was about to show her, he took it from her and disappeared down the hall. He entered a large type of closet past a secretary and filed it away in a locker that had a number on it and quickly shut it without bothering to lock it. He moved back to where he had left Kagome, watching her shock-glazed eyes skim the bare room save for an empty metal table, a stand with some foreign utensils on it, and the back wall made of metal with a grid of square drawers on them. Huge drawers, she saw, bracing against the cold. He matched the number on his notes to one of the drawers, finding one that was just at hip height to Kagome.

He looked back to her, watching her face, then pulled open one of the drawers with a heave. The first thing she saw was a large, worn foot stained with asphalt, the skin a sickening color of blue and ivory. There was a tag on his big toe, with a number on it that looked familiar. Lying before her was a very dead Inuyasha. A thin white sheet covered his body up to his neck, his hair a mercurial pool framing his perfect and peaceful face. The reality hit Kagome like a rock and she felt tears well up. She hid the contorting edges of her lips behind a hand.

Kentaro had his back turned to give her privacy. His beeper brought him out of awkwardly staring at the wall. When he looked at it, he gasped and ran out of the room in a rush, spluttering something about her leaving when she was done. He was totally panicked, and he wasn't the only one.

"Inuyasha?" She touched his face gently, recoiling at the coldness of it. She shivered, realizing how cold it really was in here. Not enough for ice to form, but enough to keep the smell of…. Her eyes widened. _Oh gods, are all of those drawers full of…._ She recalled the news before she left that morning for school saying something about the recent murders and crime spike in Tokyo. She nearly retched all over Inuyasha's sleeping body. Instead, she dropped her face onto his chest and wrapped her warm arm across him, crinkling the stiff cotton sheet. Raven hair covered his face and intermingled with his silver. She didn't care how cold he was, she just wanted to give him some warmth of hers and have him wake up from it. She would give her every degree she had to make him wake up.

Then she heard voices. They were coming from a door she hadn't noticed, with a small glazed lattice window at the top. Her heart stiffened and grew as cold as Inuyasha's skin. Panic rose within her. Oh no! Kentaro was acting like it was not allowed for me to be in here! He had mentioned in the hall that this was "_against policy"_ but that he would make an exception for her. She thought of how they were sneaking and checking the rooms and moving hurriedly. It was different with him beside her to take the brunt of the blame. The voices were growing closer to the door and she snapped out of her paralysis. If she was caught, this would definitely be classified under the "delinquent" category the principal cautioned against. After all, this was tampering with evidence, wasn't it?

With one deft movement, she set momentum to the drawer and flung herself on top of Inuyasha's body, effectively closing the entire body-box behind them. Just as the vibrations of the metal calmed, she heard the door open outside and two distinct voices flow seamlessly into the cold room. Well, warm room in comparison to where she was. They were discussing the logistics of kidney incisions and hadn't seemed to notice she was ever even there.

She sighed a short-lived breath of relief. She couldn't see anything in this tiny space. There was no source of light whatsoever. She waited until her eyes adjusted, and even at her best she could only make out a slight silhouette of the face just above where she rested on his chest. She released the tears now, seeing as he hadn't woken up after all of this time. They soaked the sheet and her despair had only grown. She squeezed the body underneath her, some of her hair draped over his still face. "Oh, Inuyasha…" she hiccupped miserably. Her heart still didn't fully accept that he was dead. Yet she could feel just how far gone he was. No one could nearly have ice crystals forming in their blood and still live, hanyou or not.

In this state, she was flooded by memories. Odd ones, like making him 'sit' so she could douse the frog-demon with hairspray fueled flames, or the time she had been pressed against him out of fear of a creepy incapacitated woman coming to life and he responded sardonically, "_That was your motivation?" _His face got all flustered when he accused her of "_pressing flesh_". These were sprinkled among the more poignant ones of him protecting her, getting riled up over Kouga flirting with her, being caught in one of Naraku's traps; Her more nostalgic memories of sharing warm glances across the fire, taking his hand a few times, falling asleep on his back, him covering her with his fire-rat cloth. His face when he burst into the bathhouse in Togenkyo and saw her completely fronted to him…

She felt a jolt under her. Inuyasha's entire body was pulsing, like Tetsuaiga when something important was happening within it. Kagome looked to the body beneath her and felt it stir, a low groaning sound coming from deep within its throat.

* * *

_Wha- What the hell?! What is going on?_

Inuyasha woke up to one of the most ponderous of situations he'd ever experienced. He was in a dark room, so very very dark despite his enhanced sight in low lights. And there was something atop him. Something heavy. His ears twitched freely, devoid of the hat that was previously concealing them, and heard the sound of sobs which he immediately recognized to be Kagome's. He'd heard them enough times before, and they sounded most reminiscent of the last battle. The sobs immediately stopped and he felt arms squeeze him to the point his lungs faltered in breathing, a soft face nuzzling his chest through a swatch of fabric that he was vaguely aware was present. "Inuyasha!" she whispered so delightedly he felt his heart swell ever so slightly, "I'm so glad you're alive. I knew you were OK, I just knew it!"

"Ka-Kagome?! What is going on? Where are—Ah! Will you get off of—" His voice was loud and distressed, alternating between a masculine growl and a boyish cracking, and she had no choice but to place her hand atop his mouth and silence him.

"Shhh!" she hissed, stilling the squirming hanyou beneath her.

His ears pinned back on his head, not that she could see them. She removed her hand. He spoke lower and more pointedly. "Kagome, what is going on?" He heard voices outside. He felt cold walls near either side of his arms at his sides.

Kagome whispered the story, beginning from what she saw when she left the courtyard of the school, up until then. He was deadly still beneath her, listening in and taking all the information he could. When she stopped, he couldn't suppress a quirk of his brow, commenting on the last thing she'd stammered out. "So you jumped on my corpse so you wouldn't be 'caught'?" It was the same tone he'd used to say "_That was your motivation?"_

She caught herself accidentally mirroring her own words from back then, "What else would it be?"

He showed just how different they were towards each other when he just snorted and tried to sit up, fruitlessly. "Keh, well now that I'm awake you don't have to worry. I'll just bust us outta' here!" She could _hear_ the smug expression on his face.

"Nononono!" she whispered back harshly, pushing him back down by bracing her back on the cold ceiling.

"Why not?" he demanded.

She faltered, and knew he wanted an answer. Would he hate her? She was a dirty cheater anyway. It made her heart hurt at what she knew he'd answer with, but the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. Some part of her would rather have him believe she was a cheater as far as tests at school than some sort of necrophiliac pervert girl who wants to stay locked in a cold box with him. Okay all of her would rather him believe she cheated on a test. It was truth. "I can't afford to get in any more trouble than I'm already in. I was caught cheating on my test." She swallowed, "The principal told me if I get into any more trouble, I will be expelled from school."

"So?" he asked, truly not understanding the implications of that.

"So," she huffed in agitation, scooting herself forward on him so her face was more level to his, not noticing as he stirred in response, "That means that all of my hard work will have been for nothing! And I'll have to go to school longer than I should have to!"

That last part got him and he acquiesced to her reasoning. He certainly wanted this damned "school" shit over with as soon as possible. There was a long silence between them as the reality of what was going on set into them both. Kagome shifted for a more comfortable position of straddling his hips, finding that only made him more uncomfortable by her crushing his forearms with her knees. Sighing, she lay prone against him. Every movement made him all the more… unsettled. He broke the awkward silence by only making it a little worse, "How long do we…" he stifled a grunt as she moved against him, "have to be here?" His voice cracked, and he cursed himself.

"Until they are gone." Kagome listened to the voices coalescing out in the room. She heard the slamming of a drawer nearby. The older one was talking about the ballistics of the gunshot wound, while the other asked questions. He asked how to get the bullet out without destroying evidence. The older answered by describing, in great detail, how a "Y" shape is cut from either collarbone down to meet at the sternum, and cut down past the scrotum.

Kagome stifled a scream, making a choking sound. "What? Why are they talking about that?" Inuyasha asked her, trying to figure out meanings that were so far beyond him. He knew the definitions of the individual words, even some of the medical terms for body parts, but putting them together baffled him. They had no such things as investigations in the feudal era. That would just be senseless. A death is a death and a murder is a murder, no matter the assailant. Stuff like that just happened.

"That was going to be you when they were done with those bodies from the recent crimes." He felt her body shake atop his. He shuttered with her, the weight of what would have happened to him hitting deep. He clenched his legs together instinctively.

A snarl came from deep within him. Damn it! That may have actually happened! He would have been completely powerless to stop his own disembowelment and castration. And to weakling humans, no less!

The two began to calm as they listened to the two men outside chat, now on lighter topics, and found that they still had several bodies to work through before they were finished. One asked the time. The other responded two in the morning. Did they not rest? Was this some sort of twisted night watch?

Kagome folded her arms across his chest, growing comfortable to its rising and falling, and rested her chin atop them. "We'll have to wait it out."

Inuyasha nodded curtly, knowing she could feel it if not see it. His eyes had adjusted to see the shape of her face versus her hair, which was certainly an improvement. His ears perked as she made a gentle little sound, "Hey, Inuyasha?" she paused, as if gathering her thoughts, "Thank you. I know this isn't comfortable…" She sounded like he had any choice. He supposed maybe he did, but he knew she'd never forgive him if he got her… whatever that word she used, from that school place.

"Keh."

And so there they lay. The padding beneath Inuyasha was hardly that, and over time it grew only more and more stiff. Kagome had it a little easier, what with his body giving more to her weight. But the curve of his chest arched her back uncomfortably and when he breathed all the way in she was pressed against the ceiling. He was warm, as was she, but the longer she spent idle in this punishingly cold meat locker, the lower her body temperature became. Inuyasha had thought she was asleep by how still she grew, but quickly realized that she wasn't with all of that shivering she started doing. The sound of her teeth clattering rang loud and irritating in his ears. He snaked a clawed hand out from under the sheet and gently pawed for her arm, shocked at the coldness to his touch.

"Hey, you OK?" He asked, genuine concern lacing his voice. He felt her nod against his chest. He suspected it wasn't from just the cold. "Hey… don't listen to them outside. I'm fine…" that was the best he had.

But that wasn't just it. They were saying some disturbingly accurate and medical things about these dead people who had families in mourning, memories lost, lives left unlived, yes. But she was growing a little claustrophobic, and the knowledge that there were frozen dead bodies above, below, and to either of her sides was truly freaking her out. And gods knew what she would see when she and Inuyasha emerged from the drawer laid out on that cold table. And she couldn't deny that she felt nervous about being in such close proximity to the man she'd secretly loved for over a year now.

"Here…" he said, moving his body towards the side of the small enclosure, attempting to roll so that his back pressed against it. Kagome was rolled off of him and onto her side. With this new position, they both found they had a little extra space, if not feeling strange with one of their arms pinned underneath their bodies. Kagome felt her face being tickled by both her hair and his. Her eyes widened as she heard the crinkling of the sheet and felt a warm hand drape it behind her. "Have this."

"Thanks, Inuyasha." There was a bit of space between them, but only with them both pressed flush to the freezing cold walls. Kagome wiggled off of hers closing the gap. She raised her hand from its resting spot on her hip to lightly touch his shoulder. The sensation shocked them both:

Kagome felt the warm, bare flesh of his shoulder. Inuyasha felt her clothes against him, then the touch of a freezing cold hand against his shoulder underneath the sheet.

Both froze, fear paralyzing them. Inuyasha made a sound next to "Uhh" except it was cracking, and Kagome was completely silent, hand just hovering above his shoulder and ghosting the sheet. Gently, she set it down on him, confirming it was in fact skin, then moved quickly and blindly to his collarbones, sternum, ribs. His heartbeat quickened and made his neck pulse. Her scent had been pretty much steady up until then, showing light douses of fear, discomfort, and neutrality. But her scent spiked as soon as that hand lay down onto his torso. The hanyou bit back a moan at the heady scent quickly filled the tiny space and made his head swim, not to mention her hand wandering aimlessly about him.

He felt her arm curl away as if offended, in turn arching her back and accidentally touching her thigh to his. They did the freezing thing again, paralyzed by a further realization. His hand absently touched his own abdomen, patting each exposed section of skin and moving south until their fears were confirmed.

"Where are your clothes?!" "Where are my clothes?!" they both said at the same time. Kagome almost passed out from sheer embarrassment; Inuyasha almost passed out from the smell of Kagome. That was fear, definitely, and was that arousal he smelled? He refused to let himself believe it. Come, on! This was _Kagome_ we were talking about here! And yet, there it was, unmistakable. It made his blood boil and his face was so red he nearly lit the room a shade of crimson. He could feel the warmth coming from her face, and imagined she was the same way.

The stillness had stopped, and had erupted into panic. Both were pressed to the walls as much as they could possibly press. But Kagome's struggle was far more strenuous than Inuyasha's, as she held both hands out to his chest, stifling a shriek and instead making an "eep!" sound, pushing and writhing in fruitless effort to make distance between her and the bare hanyou. He just lay there in complete shock as Kagome writhed and muttered unintelligible things. Her movements were quick and under obvious duress, but as she succeeded in making one half of herself move away from him, the other half lost balance and slammed against him, pushing him further against his own wall that he had practically melted into. Inuyasha felt his breath catch and choke him as her thrashing disheveled her clothing, the hot expanse of her stomach brushing against him was a fire-whip cracking straight to his loins. He didn't even allow himself to consider where her skirt was -or wasn't- at that moment.

"Ka-Kagome…!" he whined as she made one particular movement to weld her neck against the wall, which forced her hips against his and ground against him as she squirmed. He felt his flesh stick to her upper thighs and peel away embarrassingly. She didn't seem to notice. Her heart was hammering her chest, and certainly breaking a few ribs in the process. She teetered the opposite way, attempting to get her hips as far away as possible, pressing her breasts against his chest. As she squirmed, she was kicking with an indeterminable fervor that caught the sheet against her heel and tangled it so she had to cognizantly push it away.

Inuyasha shut his eyes and attempted to breathe through his mouth, focusing on his eyelids rather than what the grinding and writhing of her uncontrolled body was doing to his. Her pushing against his chest had tired and her hands had slipped down to his lower abdomen, blunt little nails digging into his skin. Sweat congregated on his brow despite the cold, and he felt his blood travel south…

Kagome was actually becoming very panicked, beyond the point that would have been just embarrassment. And whatever it was she was doing was going to make things very, very bad in just a minute. Inuyasha had to do something to get her to stop. Doing the first thing that came to mind, his strong hand gripped her wrist and held it very still, effectively shocking her into stillness. "Kagome… stop." He ground out, his mind fighting for the limited supply of blood. His gold eyes shone ever so faintly in the darkness. His voice was so low, the bass reverberated through their chests that were touching and shook her heart. "Am I really that disgusting to you?" He wasn't asking it as a serious question, just trying to make her evaluate her own behavior, but a part of him still wanted to know the answer.

She blinked in shock. It was like her mind was snapped back into itself. Her lungs filled as she recognized her disheveled state and squeaked an apology while righting herself. Stammering, she choked on her words, cleared her throat, and whispered, "Wouldn't you act the same?"

What kind of fucking question was that? He growled, actually considering her question, unable to answer honestly because he didn't really know. Finally, he got out a fairly confident, "No." He'd likely act as he had just then: Very, very still. Then again, if this were reversed, she'd have a fire-rat cloth on her by now. There wasn't much for her to offer him except for that meager red ribbon tied at her neck. Now _there_ was a troubling thought.

There was a heavy silence, mostly consisting of haggard breathing from the two. Kagome broke it with a quick whisper, "You don't disgust me." She knew how sensitive he could be about being a half-demon and how nearly everyone looked upon him with hate and disgust.

Gods, Inuyasha was so glad that there was no light in this little chamber of theirs. If she had seen the blush on his face, she would never have let him live it down. The grinding against him sent tingles down his spine, but her words implied so many things that she could be thinking (as if her scent didn't), and he felt a surging within himself. _Idiot! _He condemned himself, _That isn't what she's saying! She was being general!_

Kagome had just relaxed enough to stay still and even realize she was cold, meaning her flaring hormones had been placed in check at least a little bit. She had begun talking to herself quietly, urging herself encouragement. _You're OK, Kagome. It's fine. Just a naked hanyou, that's all! You've seen him naked before –what? Three times?—see? Not a big deal. Oh, but close up is different! It's fine; I'm fine; Hold yourself together, girl!_

Apparently, she didn't realize she was saying all of this aloud. His expression became dry and arid, his voice reflecting it, "Uh, Kagome? Could you keep your thoughts to yourself?" She made a terrified sound and before he could stop himself he said, "Wait, when have you seen me?" suspiciously.

Kagome's blush had spread down her face to her chest. Was it possible to become anymore embarrassed than she already was? "Eh-eh? Uhh, I, um, well it's not my fault! You're the one who came crashing into my room!"

His voice was dangerously above a whisper, "You weren't supposed to look!"

"Oh, yeah? How's that fair?! That's like me accusing you of peeking in Togenkyo!" Her voice was definitely above a whisper, and she stopped, waiting for the voices to continue on and released the breath she didn't know she was holding when they finally did.

"Keh."

They moved further back to their respective sides.

* * *

For entertainment for the time passing so excruciatingly slow, they listened to the two outside. They chatted about idle things, occasionally throwing in something disturbing about the body they were considering. One would leave to fetch the other coffee from time to time. Based on all of the evidence they were talking about, Kagome deduced they were still on the same first body. Which was both a good and bad thing. Good because it was more likely that he would have to stop and leave to maybe sleep before he got to Inuyasha's drawer. Bad because that could take all night. Kagome wanted to stretch, take a bath, and not fret over accidental brushes of skin.

She had begun to shiver again, and even Inuyasha was feeling the effects of the cold around them despite himself. Suddenly, he felt her whack her face against his chest and he recoiled. "Oof, sorry, Inu…yasha" her shoulders were straining against him as if she were reaching for something. She used her free hand to use his chest as leverage to slide down. Inuyasha felt himself heating at this newly compromising position, her head just above his navel as she continued to feel around the darkness for something. His skin crawled as her hand mussed against his leg hairs, but not in a bad way. "Ah—wha, what are you doin', Kagome?" Her hand strained, looking a little more desperately now.

"The sheet…" she said, the effort quieting her. It wasn't a bad idea. All she had to do was retrieve it and their discomfort could be minimized. Maybe she could even accept some body heat from him. Her chaste dream was cut short as she felt a hand at the crest of her forehead, gentle but firm. "Uh… Inuyasha?" Why was he stopping her? Did he want to remain like that? Her hand came up in front of her face, finding the tight bunch of muscles of his abdomen and the triangle-shaped line of hair running leg-ward. The flesh was rising and falling, as if he was breathing hard. She gasped, _Oh…_

He was tempted to push her down, but instantly reigned in those lecherous thoughts and instead pushed her back towards her half of the box. Gods, he was starting to think like the monk! _Smite me now~_ he begged. "I'll get it." He said simply, moving downwards to grasp the cloth bundled in the furthest corner with his foot. How had they managed that? He brought it close to grasping range, but found an obstacle to his knee. With a little extra effort, the unknown obstacle splayed and he was surprised how much more mobility he had, but was confused at the sudden intake of air from the girl. Then he realized how warm the obstacle was, and how his thigh was wedged between hers, unleashing that intoxicating scent full force again. "Oh fuck, I'm sorry, Kagome!" He was slightly dizzy. Why was he apologizing? Obviously she liked it. He physically shook the thoughts away.

He was too shy to stay locked like that and quickly slid away, forcing him to work at getting the sheet the hard way. As soon as he leaned down, though, he found he couldn't go very far. Kagome felt his face catch on her breasts and took another gasp. They froze, the level of awkward taken to a new height.

He quickly stiffened, in more ways than one, and snarled indignantly, "Fuck the sheet!"

"Did you hear something?" one of the voices said to the other. Kagome smacked her hand over Inuyasha's mouth and held her breath.

"Hm? No, I didn't hear anything."

She released it. Then him. Inuyasha was agitated now, and she could feel the frustration radiating off of him. He spoke quietly but harshly to her, "Look, if this is so bad, let's just leave here and kill them so no one will know." It actually wasn't a bad idea at the moment, but then she thought about it.

"In this age, someone dying is a big deal. They look into things called 'evidence' and they always know who did it. These guys are very important people because they investigate crimes for us. If they die, we'll be in big trouble because they'll know who did it." It was logical.

"But if they are dead, how can they tell who killed them without examiners?" Curse his logical mind.

"There are more of them, lots more," she answered quietly.

"Keh… I still don't see why we just don't kill them," the half-demon grouched.

They listened to them hauling a body off a table, talking of stitches. A drawer rattled open and slammed closed, a finality to that poor person's death. Like hearing prison bars close for the first time. He was listening pretty intently to what they were doing, curious to see what would have become of his "play-dead" body. Not pretty. Really, what did they intend to find in a car accident victim anyway? From what he could tell, the others had been killed on purpose by other people. Did they think his 'death' wasn't accidental as well?

He was pulled from his thoughts at the shivering in Kagome's body that was beginning to wrack against them both. Her jaw clattering was becoming so loud, he feared they could hear her. Now the war within himself began. Here he was, naked as the day he was born (save for a rosary bead necklace—there was no way they could get that damn thing off), and torn between maintaining his pride and her sense of decency, and the obvious need for warmth that was threatening to pull her into the jaws of hypothermia. He knew she was likely in the same boat as far as internal conflict; There was absolutely no way she _hadn't _considered using his extra warmth. The sheet had been a bust but they both knew it would be pointless in the way of warmth anyway.

Inuyasha was a hardass. He slayed demons nearly as often as he drew breaths. He had gone against Naraku and his minions countless times and always came out strong. But here, lying naked and trapped, the great and powerful Inuyasha was terrified of this tiny human girl and what great pains she might inflict upon him solely with her opinion. Not to mention the physical control she had over him.

Growling, he steeled himself for the earful he was going to get and gently wrapped his arm around her back. He felt her tense under his touch as he gently pulled her his way. She made a sudden movement, which made him wince as though he was about to be smacked, and was shocked to find that she was moving his now sleeping arm out from under her back towards her head as she locked herself against his chest.

When he woke up that morning, if he had been told that he was going to be naked and holding Kagome to him in the square footage of a coffin, he would have punched the person in the jaw. And yet, here he was. It seemed that her inner battle had been won as she slowly (very slowly) relaxed against his hold and stopped shivering. But his battle was far from over. Her scent was driving him mad, even as it was toned down while she calmed herself. Struggling to keep his thoughts in check, he recalled the conversations he heard between the medical examiners, then the ones he had with Kagome in the past few—oh gods, how long had they been here? His mind landed vividly on her allusion to their fateful night in Tongenkyo and he shuddered at the memory. He'd never looked straight at her before, always acting as the gentleman. Even when nearly drained of blood and concerned with her safety, his body still responded to those soft curves. Her scent had lingered on the borrowed fire-rat for gods knew how long after that, forcing him to relive the memory over and over again…

The girl he was fantasizing about shifted in his powerful arms. She took a deep breath of air, suddenly alert and awoken from her lull. "What are you looking for?" she asked, a waiver of nervousness to her voice.

Inuyasha tucked his free arm behind his head, turning just enough for it to clear the ceiling. "Huh? What are you talking about, wench? I ain't doin' nothin'," he said honestly. He was only _thinking _of doing something. He was aware of the heat growing between the two pleasantly, but hadn't realized what type of heat it was until her lower body shifted against him and brushed him in places that reacted quicker than he could stop. Oh no. This was bad.

A stammer broke out of her as she felt her thigh being brushed by something suspiciously like a hand, "I… uh, he-hey! Inuyasha, that's my leg…Could you move your hand, please?" She knew it was dark, but he really couldn't pretend innocence like this. As if she wasn't embarrassed enough!

The spike in her scent made a small moan escape him, feeling an ache run through his body. Did she honestly have no idea what she was doing to him? A burning, hungry feeling raged behind his stomach, and he balled the hand behind his head into a knot of hair. The whole problem was being compounded, if only she would just sit still!

She let out a really quiet version of a shriek, a growl of her own comparable to that of a full-fledged demon escaping as soon as the cry gave way. "Inuyasha… you're lifting my skirt…" She waited until he heard her tone and pulled back in fear. Oh, he was afraid alright, but he wasn't able to retract a hand that wasn't there. He only made a soft whining sound and prayed his death would be swift. Kagome made an agitated sound in the back of her throat and made a swift movement, "Knock it off, pervert!"

Her hand shot down to the offending appendage, wrapping with a hard grip.

Kagome's anger was quickly replaced by confusion as the half-demon beside her began to writhe and made his signature moan that was usually reserved for battle wounds or when she sat him, only this time he didn't seem to be in any pain. His eyes rolled back to get a good look at his grey matter. Tiny bolts of lightning shot from where her skin met his and burned in his stomach. His heart rate jumped and lungs filled and emptied sporadically. In his squirming, he accidentally rolled his hips and she felt his wrist slide in her hand. She wondered why its shape didn't curve outward to make the forearm like she expected it to.

"What's your problem?" she said quietly, shocked into forgetting all about her own anger, "I'm the one who was getting felt up, I should be the one upset. I just grabbed your wrist." She felt a powerful leg slip between hers and heard slight ripping noises coming from his hair.

"No you didn't," he said sharply, his face nearly touching hers. He reeled back as her hand tightened in fear at his quick change of demeanor. His heartbeat started at his throat, but he felt it migrate its palpable pulsing to his stomach, then eventually right under Kagome's hand, beating in time to his pulse. Each beat of his drum made the ache hurt all the worse. He moaned quietly in haggard breathing, "Re-Release meee!"

"Wait… then what…?" Kagome was cut short by him uncurling his hand from his hair and plopping it on her shoulder. The other was pinned under her neck. Her eyes widened in horror.

"Myhandsareuphere," he said in one angry breath

In the dark, she loosened her grip to a tormenting vice, and made a quick movement to figure out what she was holding, much in the fashion she'd explored his chest before. She moved towards its base.

Now he was employing self-control. Sure, it'd be awkward in such a tight space, but he was sure he could manage. His demon was screeching at him to claim her and his human wasn't far away from agreeing.

She cried out and instantly jerked her hand (for lack of better term) away, his sound of mortification echoing hers. They both turned their backs to the other, breathing heavily. Her scent was pushing him towards the edge with each breath. Whenever they are embarrassed, naturally, anger works to hide the extreme chagrin.

"What the hell was that?! Gods, I'm mortified!" she cried quietly in the dark.

"Oh, _you're_ embarrassed? You aren't the one who just got fully groped!" he snapped back at the wall in front of him. His life was over. That just happened.

"_It_ was working on it, you know!" she quipped, elbowing him in the back.

He grunted at the elbow, "What am I supposed to do?! You were the one rubbing all up on me!"

"_Me? _You're the one who wanted to get close!" Her arms crossed under her breasts, supporting herself against his back so as to not touch the freezing walls and lose all that warmth she'd gained. "Besides, you're part demon, shouldn't you have a handle on things like that?" She winced at her poor choice of words.

He sighed exasperatedly, "That isn't… that's not how it works." He turned back on the offensive, "Well it did happen! Since when did you get so brazen as to go pawing around in the dark like that, anyway?" he accused, snorting at her.

"Look, I thought it was your hand on my leg. I believed I was grabbing your wrist." Her tone had turned to an irritated appeasement.

"I'm flattered," he said sarcastically, "But what makes you think I would purposefully put my hand up your skirt?"

"It was just as surprising as… _that_ was. Both are uncharacteristic of you." She felt words were coming easiest to her now than it had since before she'd returned to the modern era. "Well, you _are_ a guy, after all." Though Kagome meant that more as a rationalization for his behavior, the way she said it made it seem like an insult, as though he was some beast who couldn't control himself. She had turned back to face him, wanting to look him in the eye even if she couldn't see it.

He was the same way and they had shifted back facing each other, but she made a pointed effort to be face-to-face rather than face-to-chest this time. "What's that supposed to mean?" he snarled.

She pressed her palm into her face, then she realized which hand she used and quickly pulled it away. He felt the movement and did all he could to stifle a laugh. "I don't know, I don't know much about you like this. I don't know where your limits of self-control are. Everyone has them. I swear I wasn't trying to tease you." She felt her blush grow hotter at her own glaringly honest words but in all truth, it was a drop in the bucket. She wondered what would have happened if she _had_ teased the hanyou, maybe sliding her hand just enough to hear him groan…

Her seriousness had caught him completely off-guard. The spluttering sound he made was music to her ears, and her manipulative nature had her grinning inwardly at the control she suddenly had over the conversation. She felt him rotate his body slightly, and could nearly hear him grimacing. It was the smell! It had spiked once again, dragging his libido around, quite literally, by the nose. Why was it spiking even when she was so serious? Were her own words and thoughts backfiring on her? He growled low and mumbled under his breath, "Your scent does all the teasing for you…"

Normally she wouldn't have heard him, but the perfect silence and her ears being used to catching quiet sounds all night received it easily. Her eyes widened, "My… my scent?"

He swallowed hard. Shit. She'd heard him. "Yeah…" he answered cautiously. His legs clenched together instinctively, fearing she'd do to him what the medical examiners had failed to get to. He forgot that there was one of hers trapped between them, and he felt her body heat and her squirming with her thigh being constricted.

Kagome was appalled. _Wha-what?! Was this creep sniffing me out? How long has he been doing this?! _ She felt him tense, her forgotten thigh being poignantly reminded of its spot between his as a boa constrictor ground against the appendage. Her nails dug into his arms angrily at the thoughts she was having, not all just on the scent issue. But it wasn't necessarily a bad sensation. It felt like a heated rod was shoved up her leg and implanted at the base of her core. She fought for logical cognizance, reasoning that this _was_ a small space and he _did _have a very sensitive nose. Both were beyond his control. Why was he squeezing her thigh? Was he trying to illustrate what he was going through? It was working. Still, something nagged at her mind.

She spoke so gently that he almost didn't hear her. "Does it affect you that much?" It picked up ever so slightly, "I recall you saying that you hate my scent."

The way his body strained in response to her nails digging into him made a burning sensation in the pit of her stomach appear where a tingling sensation had once patrolled. A hard pulsating feeling gathered and beat along with the rhythm of her heart, making her back arch with the new sensation.

This was something he'd yet to gather from the girl in all the time he'd ever spent with her, among any of her cycles, in any of her moods. He saw splotches of black cross his vision despite the darkness, the intensity of the scent rendering him inebriated. He groaned at the friction of her clothes against him, "Yep. Can't stand it." He wondered absently why Kagome hadn't pulled her violated thigh from his, then realized it was probably because she _couldn't_ with all the straining his muscles were doing. Said straining was caused by her touch, and the vicious cycle continued.

Kagome was utterly confused and now angry again. It hurt to have something that personal insulted. Still, she could tell that there was something wrong with him. He was groaning as if in pain. She knew very little in the way of men, but her womanly intuition told her that he was contradicting himself and lying. She crossed her arms across her chest and lay on her back, pushing him further against the wall and finally freeing herself from his hold. "Ugh, I can't believe I wasted a first kiss on you."

"Huh? Wha- what did you say?" He was halted again, looking down at the woman's silhouette. He had no idea what she was talking about, but her words hurt the same. "What're you talkin' about, wench?"

She turned her back to him. "Nothing," she snapped at the blackness. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her shoulders hunched, trying to push him as far away as physically possible.

He propped up on an elbow so as to gain a dominate space as he leaned his head over hers. His curtain of hair fell heavily on her forehead. "Kagome…" the word was gnarled by an animal-like warning growl. "Tell me!" His body had moved in succession with his head.

Kagome took a sharp breath as she felt his hips curl around hers, warming her body from every point his loins touched her. That pounding feeling was back, and with a vengeance. Anger and arousal made for such a strange combination. "Look! It's nothing! You were 'dead' anyway."

"What the hell makes you think it's okay to kiss a dead guy?!" he ground out, his anger fading as that scent took another step up yet again. Inuyasha was vaguely reminded of one of those torture machines he'd seen before, where the victim's skull was stuck under a screw-driver pushing down on a flat slab of metal until it split. That's kind of what it felt like, with her scent growing stronger and tightening the hold on his head and effectively threatening to split it in two once it reached a certain level. Inuyasha didn't know what he would do if that force was ever exerted on him. Kagome was right; Everyone does have a certain limits of self-control. Her anger only made it that much more potent, and something in him wanted to make her angrier to make that screwdriver keep twisting the agonizing pleasure into him.

All of his aforementioned emotions were conflicted by the rising thought that she may have been kissing his dead body out of sheer grief.

"I said earlier that I tried to resuscitate you," she answered simply, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I was trying to bring you back using CPR." Really, it wasn't _this_ big of a deal, was it? It wasn't for pleasure's sake.

Inuyasha didn't know what that meant, but he was freaked out. "What the hell, Kagome? Wanna tell me what else you did to my body while I was out?!"

His accusatory tone really pissed her off. As if she would do anything to him in a state of complete helplessness! Rape was just as much valid for men as it was for women, just not as common. She twisted her head and propped up on an elbow of her own to look at him, forcing his free hand to take half of his weight as she nearly knocked his main support out from under him. Her hips stayed where they were; She wasn't about to risk moving them against him and letting that punk have the satisfaction of smelling her arousal if she could help it. "Do you know who you're talking to here? I would never! It's _me_, Inuyasha."

This new position struck the hanyou as particularly erotic. He was half over, half beside the girl, with his hips melding that flimsy little skirt to her rump. Her body twisted into an impossible angle, probably lashing her hair all around her head. Inuyasha, or at least the rising part of him that usually lay dormant, wished desperately to be able to see her. He wondered if _she_ could smell _his_ arousal. His anger stirred at her words. Not strengthened, per-se, but changed. "Yes, _Kagome_, I'm aware it's you. It just doesn't smell like you. Well, it does, but you smell like you want…" he stopped, suddenly overcome by the awkward situation he was putting himself in. His body had responded to his own words, lucid and vivid images flashing across his mind. He wasn't the only one. He felt the screwdriver twist. He was forced to make an awkward shift lower on her hips to redirect himself, desperately trying to avoid her detection. He groaned loudly when her back arched into him in response. His arms quivered with the effort to hold himself up.

He couldn't see how, but he felt one of the backs of her knees touching his, the other unaccounted for. It must have been there for quite a while. His anger quickly surfaced as his mind fought for control, the fight within himself being what angered him more than anything else. He was searching for something to fill the heavy silence that he'd caused. Anything. Not even the hum of conversation and utensil-clinking from outside was there to dull the screaming silence. The slightly splayed position of her thighs was absolutely butchering his senses. Growling stopped short and he quickly barked, "Would you close your fucking legs?!" It hardly helped when she did, but the distractions were really starting to disorient him. His breathing was coming out in short pants.

Kagome was about to 'sit' him into oblivion, when she thought of the unknown dead body they might come crashing down upon. Not to mention the noise they'd make. Instead, she opted to flipping her body in one motion and striking him against the wall using all of her body weight. It resounded loudly against the hollow metal chambers, nearly deafening them both after the long period of quiet. She had her feet braced against her wall so she could effectively pin him against his, hands flat on either shoulder and her chest sensually and scarily compressing his lungs. Damn! Kagome could strike like a snake when she was angry. Her nose overlapped his and their foreheads grazed one another, they were so close as she yelled in his face, "_Inuyasha!_ How dare you say something so demeaning to me?!" She had interpreted his request as something connotative as well as literal, as though he was implying she was being easy towards him. Maybe she just heard her own fears in his words.

Inuyasha was both terrified and turned on by her extreme response. He was being completely literal. Did it anger her that her scent affected him to the point he needed her to rein it before he did it for her? He knew that she wasn't fooled by his earlier admonition of hating the way she smelled to him. He'd told her so directly in his human form all that time ago; Surely she hadn't forgotten? Inuyasha would have forgotten his naked state in favor of focusing his awe, attraction, and submission to the girl pinning him against the wall had it not been for her entire body pressing against him save for some surprisingly powerful legs propped against the wall. "Nnngh….!" His voice cracked, doing everything within his diminishing strength to control his body's coercive drives. "Kagome! Wh-what the hell?! " Fortunately and not-so-fortunately, his argumentative nature was there to the rescue. "Bitch, I didn't say anything wrong! If you'd just do what I say, we wouldn't be having this problem, " he snarled.

He felt her breath directly on his face and was made keenly aware of just how close they were to one another. Kagome was saying something, bitching about not killing examiners or some shit, but the hanyou hardly noticed. Lust swarmed through him, and he wondered absently how she thought his lips had felt against hers. Perhaps she would prefer them warm and alive. One of her hands snaked its way up his chest and curled daintily around his throat, straining with the effort. It only served to stir his demon half's primal drives, while his terrified and turned on human half fought for those last shreds of decency. It feared more than anything the loss of Kagome's friendship over this incident. He didn't notice just how long they had stayed like that, how long he was battling within himself just as Midoriko had no recall of time fighting within the jewel. Nor how long Kagome had been screaming at him, with her lashing lips itchingly close to hitting his. Something took him over – curiosity, maybe, and lust, definitely— and he felt his ears pin back as he slid forward ever so slowly, noses grinding together as that torturous gap was closed nanometer by nanometer. His eyes slid closed languorously and aqueously, expecting a warm set to match his.

He got nothing but a sharp gasp and cold, rejecting air in its place. His heart sank, fear gripping his entire being and smashing his desire. _Idiot! Why did I have to do that? Now everything is ruined between me and Kagome…_ His mind flashed terrifying images of her drawing away from any touch from here on out; Forever riding on Kirara's back; Refusal of his fire-rat cloak; Suspicious and untrusting looks sent his way any time she left for a soak in a spring like he was some lust-bound animal. All that time spent winning her undying trust, ruined! His gentlemanly behavior, if not gruff, was lost. His friendship with the first person who taught him how to trust again, soiled. Uncomfortable.

The despairing half-demon was pulled from his personal hell at her voice. "Inuyasha, do you hear that?" Her voice was urgent, focused, keen. It was as if nothing at all had happened. In fact, that was what she had pulled back at, not having realized what was truly going on with her rage burning all of her attention up and making her miss any and all subtleties.

He was fraught with confusion, "No." There was perfect silence. Even the reverberating of their skirmish had stopped and was completely devoid of sound.

But that was just it. "We were really loud just now," she observed, "They should be opening our drawer or at least be suspicious or something." She was right, he realized, wondering why the conversation outside had died down. Were they afraid a body had come back to life? What irony. They listened for what seemed like a solid three minutes, still pressed up against one another and completely frozen. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

They shared an unseen but felt glance, and he sat up to all fours, or as close to that as permitted with the low ceiling. "How do we get out of here?" He was feeling around for an exit. Before he tried turning around toward the sound the voices had come from, which they both knew was not going to work, Kagome explained that they were in fact in a drawer that would slide with enough force. She instructed him to kneel at the head of the chamber, which was a feat in itself. Luckily, they'd had plenty of practice being forced into awkward positions. He pushed hard enough against the back wall to set motion to the sliding contraption and she peeked around to make sure no one was there. Coast was clear.

* * *

The flood of harsh fluorescent light nearly broke the rods of their eyes. When the burning pain in their visual cortexes dropped to a simmer behind their shielding hands, they were able to see the clinically clean room and their ticket to freedom: the door. To Kagome's infinite relief, the table was devoid of the dismembered body and blood-flood that she'd imagined to be. She'd seen much carnage in her life, but for some inexplicable reason, the thought of seeing such gore in her own time was far beyond unsettling to her. She crawled out of their little casket, the warmer air hitting her skin in the most wonderful way. She recalled just how cold it felt when she first walked in and realized her body temperature was far below what it should be. Standing felt so good, and the space around her felt infinite.

The relief was short lived. "C'mon, we gotta get out of here quickly before they get back!" she whispered without looking back. Fear dug at her as she glanced to the slightly ajar door with the glazed lattice window, revealing a few sets of laboratory equipment.

Clearly Inuyasha wasn't feeling the same fear. He was agitated to the point of indifference. The smell of cleaner burnt his nose, the harsh lighting giving him a headache, his body temperature changing from overheated to cold in too many fluctuations, and the memory of what had just transpired still burning behind his eyes. He acted as though he hadn't heard her and relished in the feeling of a hard vertical stretch, kneecaps splaying noisily and his arms tucked behind his head in an attempt to grab his own shoulder-blades. He didn't get what Kagome was afraid of. These were just a bunch of puny humans; He could slaughter them in one fell swoop if they so much as looked at Kagome funny. And so what if she lost school privileges? They did nothing but bring her stress and draw her away from the Feudal Era anyway.

Kagome was already across the room and working at the heavy steel door frantically when she heard the little popping sounds of his body from the back wall. She growled at the lack of urgency he was displaying. Didn't he care that she could get in huge trouble for this? Well, since he's living she wasn't tampering with any "evidence". But regardless, it would still be extremely suspicious for two young people to be in a personnel-only area alone. Especially with one being naked. How would she explain that she'd jumped on a dead half-demon and made him come to life? She didn't want to deal with it in any form.

"Inuyasha!" she half-begged, half-snarled. "Seriously! We gotta—" Kagome had turned to reunite her emotions with their source directly, and stopped dead at what she saw. If she thought things were bad in the small dark box, she had been caught severely unawares. Even in the most unforgiving of lights, he still had an incredible physique and Kagome wondered absently if he knew it and was purposefully standing like that to rub it in her face, so to speak. She saw striking golden orbs glowering rebelliously at her between two triceps.

Said owner of those eyes wondered what had finally gotten her to stop bitching. They made eye contact, and he got the concept pretty fucking quickly. Judging by the expression on her face, she was about to pass out just after her eyes finished their erratic descent from his heart to his feet. The man was made of smug and therefore wasn't all that susceptible to a body-image glitch, but anyone would feel vulnerable standing in freezing conditions under what felt like twenty spotlights. Not to mention being visually violated. They froze like that, staring at one another in unbidden horror and curiosity. He had finally turned his back to her and pawed around the still-open body drawer for the sheet when he heard a dreaded _thwump_ of a body hitting the hard tiles. His earlier assessment as to whether she'd pass out had been confirmed.

"Kagome!" he cried, pulling the crumpled sheet along more as an afterthought, and raced to Kagome's side. "Kagome! Wake up!" He pulled her into his arms and shook her lightly, watching her head rattle and hair swing around too happily. Even in this chilled air, the heat of her waking scent lingered and hit him like that out of control motorist from earlier. He had better things to focus on now; Her fall sounded as though a good head injury was involved. He didn't smell any blood, however.

Her eyes rolled around haphazardly behind her eyelids for some time before they snapped into their upright positions. Kagome gazed at the watery image of the light panels on the ceiling slightly obstructed by something that was a less harsh shade of white. She touched it, revealing it was silky and familiar. Her eyes followed it to the scalp and realized there was a face on it. Said face was a mixture of panicked and what could only be embarrassment, what with that tell-tale brushing of red across the bridge of his down-tilted nose.

Then it hit her. Kagome sat up with a flurry of motion not unlike that first burst back in the body drawer. She was being held to the same bare body that had made her lose consciousness! Strong arms that were normally her safe haven were now constricting her and she fought them with all she had in a sudden panic. Inuyasha struggled to keep her from falling and knocking herself out again. "Damnit, Kagome! Sit still! Haven't we been this close the whole time? What the fuck is so different?" He knew what was different, but that was him both on the offensive and defensive. Was he really that repulsive that seeing him made her lose consciousness?

It seemed to work. She was still again and he was able to lower her down to the ground gently. He was right. But still…! She turned and allowed herself a glance downward and to her relief he was covered to some degree. Kagome wasn't sure why she'd reacted to such an extreme either. Shaking her head, she pushed to all fours then shakily up to her feet, "You're right. Sorry 'bout that… I'm fine now." She started toward the door and heard the crinkling of the sheet right behind her, only coupled with snarls and under-the-breath obscenities. When she turned, a terrifying and hilarious scene was unfolding behind her.

Here he was, fighting for his dignity and the lack thereof was fighting back. He had the sheet bunched up at the front of him, his claws catching in the fabric and the trail of excess created a huge tripping hazard. He stumbled several times, only serving to piss off the powerful hanyou further. His claws began to rip the flimsy cloth in frustration, setting in panic and rage all the more with each _rip_. She could see the muscles under his biceps strain with volatility. Inuyasha's flaring amber eyes lifted from his task at trying to walk to the girl who was… laughing at him? "Oi, bitch! What's so funny?" he lashed out at her, causing her laughter to rise from a chuckle to a set of gasps that took her stomach with force. The last time he'd heard her laugh that hard was when Souta explained his reasoning for saying "_I love you!_" to him.

His anger juxtaposed to the sheet's weakness made for one funny scene. This man, who walked with predatorial balance and sureness was tripping all over himself, his face painted red with humiliation and rage. Gripping her side, Kagome stumbled forward, searching for a corner of the sheet and tucking it under his hand on his hip and motioned for him to hold it. "That's… that's! No, that's not how you hold it!" she gasped between each force of air. She wiped at a tear in her eye before pulling the same edge Inuyasha was holding into a straight line, "You'll… never get anywhere trying to walk… like, like _that!_"

Inuyasha watched with curiosity and suspicion at what she was doing, fear taking him when the sheet was pulled slightly away from the post it was guarding. "Ka-Kagome, what're you—" He felt the flattened fabric wrap around his hip then lower back as the girl walked around him. She'd untucked his hair from the fold, making his entire body shudder. Kagome had made a full circle around him and she'd put force into pulling the fabric her way, almost making him drop it and defeat the whole purpose of this (from what he could deduce). She made eye-contact with him and couldn't control the after-laughing grin still on her face as she said something to the effect of '_just hold still'_. Her hand pressed to the same fabric his was on, motioning for it to move out of her way, and she pulled the two together so that he could feel it dig his skin slightly. She put his awkwardly hovering hand back down where she wanted and repeated the circling like a shark, bringing it back to his front. He watched over his nose as the woman worked on twisting the far-most corner, and felt his body respond when her little fingers slid behind the fabric and rolled it over that twisted piece.

When she'd finally stepped back, she saw it was still a little too long, but not really a tripping hazard. He felt constricted but was comforted by the sturdiness of the contraption. So this was how she got those tiny little towels to never fall off after she bathed! He blushed as she grabbed his hand and led him out the door into a clean hallway. Even at what they assumed to be some ungodly hour, phones still rang and the sounds of general bustling still filtered throughout the entire building.

Inuyasha nearly bumped into the girl as she stopped dead in front of him. "What's wrong?" he asked, the warm air ripping all shreds of cold from their skin and made them flush with pleasure. But she didn't seem focused on that, and had stopped for something else. No one else was within their sight, nor them to anyone else.

"I, uh, need to get my backpack." She said back sheepishly.

His dark brow cocked. "Aren't you more worried about getting out of here?" He said quietly but pointedly. This dumb bitch was so fickle!

"Yes, but do _you _want to have to traipse back in here wearing _that_ to get your fire-rat clothes, or would you rather get them now?" She defended herself. She was operating on a series of assumptions, like the assumption that her things would be placed in the same space as his, the assumption they would have access to them, and the assumption they could find them in the first place.

The image of walking back through the streets and to Kagome's house half-dressed in a flimsy piece of fabric and facing Kagome's family made his skin crawl. An absent thought of himself fighting Naraku in that outfit, brandishing Tetsuaiga, and trying to slaughter his mortal enemy while looking so completely ridiculous crossed his mind. Maybe Naraku would die of laughter. He shook his head and made his hair fly back and forth with the effort. "Geez, okay, fine! Let's go." He motioned for her to lead the way.

She tapped her index fingers together shyly, "Thing is, I don't know where it was put." She'd used that same gesture and tone-of-voice before to tell him that the jewel shards had been taken from her.

"You _what!_?"

* * *

"Hurry up!" she whispered harshly to the man on the floor.

Inuyasha growled in response, his nose plastered to the freshly-sanitized ground and the scent of the chemicals was making his nose burn. "Bitch, I'm sniffin' as best I can!" How did he get here? Half-naked and face pressed into the tiles in an unknown building and trying to dodge the detection of some weakling humans like his life depended on it. The answer to that question was indefinitely Kagome. _The things I do for this bitch. We'd be back in the right time and finding jewel shards if she just did as I say. But _no_, she has to overreact to everything. _But these were just surface thoughts. His well-hidden intellectual half suggested that without her, he may very well have been split open by those humans while he was in a state of suspended animation. The eye-watering smells had paid off and he caught a faint scent of Kagome's that wasn't coming directly from its source. Standing, he growled and stalked off, "This way."

It was faint, but it gave a general direction at least. The skin of his bare feet made a _click-clack_ sound as they stuck and unstuck with each step. They started down the empty hallway and Kagome wondered absently why no one had passed by them in the hall. Autopsy was a specialized field, she supposed, so only a few specialists would frequent these areas of Tokyo's crime processing center. She felt Inuyasha's arm fly back and bar her from walking further. Innocent brown orbs glanced up at him, noting his ears had swiveled and locked onto the sound of a woman chatting and redirecting calls. Kagome stifled a cry of surprise as she was pressed against his chest, his back against the wall and peering around the corner covertly. She felt his limbs bunch and they shot across the open junction of the two corridors meeting. The ground was still just as quickly as it had accelerated.

The woman had just hung up her phone and was reaching for a pencil to jot down a note to herself about an upcoming interview for her boss when her peripheral was teased by a flash of white and black and flush. Must have just been her imagination.

Kagome unlatched her tightly clenched eyes to the sternum on her face and followed it up to Inuyasha's face. He was serious and striking. He released her and they came down yet another hallway with god knew how many offices and doors there were. There were people within each. Growling, he tried one that had no voices behind it. It was indeed empty, but contained only a desk and some chairs. Kagome felt as though it looked a lot like Kentaro's office, with the sea of paper threatening to drown anyone who entered. He sniffed around, finding the scent had died somewhere around here.

Her attention had been drawn to a particular portal because it was wooden and smaller than the other steel doors. Something running within her blood, a hunch, an instinct, a curiosity drove her towards it. She jiggled the handle a little, gently pushing in.

She would have slammed the door had she not been frozen. She heard Inuyasha say, "Huh? What is it, Kagome?" behind her, but wasn't able to process anything more than what was before her. She'd come in to some strange scenes today, saw some unforgettable things, and been officially freaked out more than once. But this was certainly up there among those ranks.

"Old man?" "Grandpa?" they asked in unison. They had totally blanched.

Kagome's grandfather was arguing with a well-dressed man who was easily three heads taller than him, both tugging their own way on an end of Inuyasha's cloth of the fire-rat. "Listen here, sonny! Inuyasha was a powerful half-demon and his memory must be preserved as such on our shrine! It will be passed on for many'a generation!" The old man tugged rather hard, causing a harsh popping sound on one of the seams. He had almost comical rivers of tears running down his cheeks. "You can't rob my great-grandchildren of this precious heirloom!"

Inuyasha was not amused. "Old man, gimme back my clothes." He bopped the geezer on the head hard enough to make him release. Not only was he tired of being dismissed as deceased, but the notion of Kagome spawning with someone else pissed him off in ways that he was afraid to explore. He hadn't even considered the possibility of the reference being to her kid brother.

It took the old man a moment to remember that signature force of punch on his head, then connect it to the half-dressed man flexing a fist at him. "Inuyasha!" he cried, plopping to his knees and wrapping his arms around the hanyou's legs, "It's you! You're okay!" The old man sobbed happily.

Inuyasha's eyes snapped dispassionately from the old man to glare at the suit-and-tie with a head still holding his haori. His expression coupled with the ripple in his taut muscles made him for one intimidating individual. The man faltered, but still came across professional, "Who are you?"

The half-demon kicked away the old man nonviolently and pointed a claw at the red fabric. "The owner of that." His hand outstretched and upturned for the man to spare his own life and hand it over. He was done with these games.

"That can't be right, sir. The owner of these is dead and these must stay in the locker as evidence." The man said as evenly as he could. Adrenaline started to seep through his veins as he watched the irate young man crack his knuckles menacingly.

Kagome's breath caught in her throat as Inuyasha made a move to strike someone who was clearly affiliated with the police department. _No!_ Her mind cried, _No, no, no! My life is over! He's gonna hit that man and I will be expelled from school, I'm sure of it!_ She watched in horror and anxiety as he arched his spine backward and pulled his leg up to deliver one of those bone-shattering kicks that he liked to use against Kouga.

When Kagome's eyes opened, she saw his claws carefully pulling something from his big toe. It made a twine-like sound as the elastic snapped, and he set his foot down. Inuyasha held the small tag with seemingly useless information on it with a set of serial numbers. She glanced to the open locker nearby and saw that the numbers matched. "Does this mean anything to you?" The boiling half-demon said calmly, handing it out to the man.

The man's face grew wan. This was the dead man, completely alive and threatening to kick his ass. He stumbled backward, but not missed as said dead man snatched his clothes from him. "How is that…?" He had so many questions. In his umpteen years working out in both the field and in the investigations departments, he had seen many strange things. But this was by far the most extreme. He closed his eyes, forming coherent thoughts, and tried to get out a question to the young girl. "Have you been with him this whole time? When did he wake up?"

It was Kagome's turn to grow pale. _Oh god! He knows I was trespassing! He knows that I was in that room I wasn't supposed to be in! And it's clear that I was in there with a naked boy! If that isn't delinquent behavior, I don't know what is! _Kagome's heart rate was up but was dislodged and pulsing in her stomach, running it cold. Tears stung the back of her eyes and panic made her skin undulate and fingers tremble. Everyone was looking at her; Even Inuyasha had pulled his eyes off of his newfound target to look towards her answer. He looked as though he was getting angrier and angrier with each passing second she didn't respond. Kagome collapsed on her knees before the man, her hands clasped together pleadingly, "Please, please, sir! Don't report me! I can't afford to get in any more trouble at my school or I'll be expelled!" It seems that Kagome was having diarrhea of the mouth, seeing as how she didn't stop at that. "We weren't doing anything, I swear! Well, at least nothing that wasn't an accident. But I was just so scared that he'd really died! He's my best friend, wouldn't you act the same? I was so worried! He's died like this before and I didn't want it to be for real this time. I, I—"

She was cut off by a sob that threatened to wrack her chest. The man looked from the pleading girl to the shocked eyes of everyone else. He was placed into quite a precarious position. He had no idea what she was talking about, or what she thought she had done wrong (or how it affected her school for that matter…?), but he knew that this _did _have to be recorded. How could the department possibly cope with the public if they found out that they had just given up on a person's untimely death because they "thought he was alive"? No one would possibly buy that he died and came back in the autopsy room. Besides, they could study his body to find some sort of cure to something. Just looking at him, he had to be a genial goldmine. And those ears—they had to be surgically attached or something. Yet why did they move as though he commanded them? "Please, miss… calm down. I promise this won't be relayed to your place of education, but I _do_ have to make a report of all that has transpired…" His voice had started to trail off when he caught sight of the strange man in question.

The hanyou was wearing a smug expression, a fang dangerously peeking through his lips. "Don't worry, Kagome. This asshole won't tell anyone." His claws curled as though squeezing an invisible stress ball. "Because if anyone finds out that they nearly killed someone by wrongly declaring them dead and shoving them in a meat locker, it'll come down on his head." He didn't necessarily mean the blame falling on the man.

* * *

The act of scooping up the noisy, clattering ice cubes and dumping them into the small baggie Kagome had splayed open was about the same decibel level as a shotgun at that hour. The house was still. Not even Gramp's snoring from his room was there to dull the shock. Kagome sighed like the roar of a crowd and wrapped a towel around the cold pack. As she gently thudded against the stairs, she noted her mother's door closed, signaling she had at least gone to sleep and not waited up for her daughter's return. They would be in for the biggest surprise of their lives in the morning, but Kagome was too exhausted to deal with that thought just yet.

Inuyasha's eye snapped open as he heard the knob to Kagome's door jar and unlatch, revealing the woman to him. She was nursing her head and the ache that came with it. He felt his heart lurch at being at fault for her injury, however roundabout it was. What irony he had threatened injury to the guy in the monkey suit's head when he actually caused more of it for her.

Catching the second icepack she'd made for him, he chilled his right in an attempt to get it to quit throbbing. Truly, what are the odds that his right eye would be impacted not once but _twice_ within such a short period of time? It was a wonder he wasn't blind, however his vision did seem a little less crisp than he remembered. He leaned forward and placed more of his weight on Tetsuaiga rather than the wall beside Kagome's bed. Something about her had really caught him off guard, and he was made all too aware of it as soon as he took his first breath.

Her skin shivered when she unclenched her aching eyelids and caught sight of the expression Inuyasha was sending her way. It was mercurial… those golden depths speaking of embarrassment, guilt and… was that pride? What an odd combination that made for. "Inuyasha?" she gently probed, suddenly unsure if it was safe to enter her own room.

He quickly looked away and crossed his arms over his sword defensively. She could had sworn she saw his white ears turn a different shade for a moment. "What?"

Kagome wondered what it was that had gotten in to him. She considered the earlier conversation they had shared as he carried her over rooftops and across bustling nightlife. From her view in the sky it looked like everything was backwards, stars on the ground and nothing but the dim backglow of them against the atmosphere above. Maybe there_ are_ stars in Tokyo, but everyone is such a part of them that they don't see them that way. They'd talked about the nature of his problem and he spelled it out to her as best he knew.

"… _And since Sesshoumaru took the pearl out of my right eye, I guess, it left me vulnerable."_ He had shaken with rage and indignation when he said this. If Kagome knew this man at all, she knew that he hated feeling weak. In any form or sense of the word.

"Hm, nothing," she said evasively, striding over on muscular legs that were close to failing her. She hadn't slept much the night before, or before that, or before that studying. She plopped down on the bed next to him, close enough to touch but not actually doing so. She was sorely tempted to just throw back the covers and rearrange him out of her way however she saw fit, but somehow she couldn't seem to will herself to do it. Kagome missed his uncomfortable shifting as she came closer. Her glassy eyes glanced towards the open window, half-heartedly noting the pre-morning grey haze.

"I'm sorry." She almost didn't hear it. It was mumbled and quiet and ran-together, but it broke the ethereal silence. Her eyes widened and she turned to him in question. He quickly added, "F-for your head."

They made the mistake of making eye contact. As soon as their eyes met and the words found her under-developed decision-making center of her brain, they were transported in a common memory to the sterile examination room where one was, ironically, being _examined_ by the other who was saving him from a real examination. They both felt their faces heat up and they quickly looked away. "I'm fine." She pressed the pack to the side of her head again, feeling some relief. But this time she didn't miss that uncomfortable shifting of his. She felt her heart go out to him as she turned back to hold his gaze. "But _you_ look a little worse for wear, ya know? You okay?" Her hand came supportively down on his shoulder, also gesturing for him to calm his fidgeting. His foot stopped beating at the frilly pink blankets. His shock and recoil at her touch had her reeling. What had she done? Was he so afraid of her touch after their incident before that he couldn't stand her now? But he'd carried her just fine! The thought that things had changed between them brought the sting of tears to her eyes, her hurt clearly reflecting in them.

Their individual plights were lost to the other. One emotional, the other physical. Inuyasha's internal conflict had been but a dull stinging until that touch, ignited into a full ebbing of himself. He was about as subtle as a shotgun as he growled and turned his back to her. It was her scent again! Perhaps it wasn't heady and hip-rolling as it had been before, but something very different about it was all the more unsettling. He was being eaten away at. "Keh!" he said, sitting awkwardly hunched over on the inner half of her bed with his back to her.

Kagome was worried and indignant at having been rejected from an innocent touch. "Hey! Wanna tell me what's wrong with you?" She tried peeking around his shoulder but he would have none of it, and for once his long hair wasn't working in her favor. At his silence, she took a stab in the dark, "Hey, would you feel better if we went back to the Feudal Era? I wouldn't mind some wide open spaces…" her voice trailed off at the wayward mention of claustrophobia.

"NO!" He said so loudly that it felt like he shook the very foundations of the house, stirring all sleeping occupants of Tokyo within a twenty-mile radius. His own desperation and loudness had caught even the half-demon off guard and he realized he'd turned all the way around and had a good grip on either of the stunned girl's biceps. Tetsuaiga had toppled over to smack her on the collarbone.

Her wide eyes stared back blankly at first, then questioningly. "Why not? Usually you're the one jumping at the chance to get back." Her body relaxed as his grip uncurled from her and his gaze dropped. What in the world has gotten into him? "Are you feeling all right?" Her hand slid under his bangs and probed for a fever. It was very possible with the redness of his burning skin.

He just snarled and slapped her hand away, "Keh! I'm fine, woman!" That scent and the _pride_ he felt connected to it on some primal level coupled with her touch was driving him to distraction and utter confusion within himself.

"You are NOT!" The desperation and hurt in her voice caught him completely offguard and he peeked through his silver shroud down at her, smelling more than seeing the tears forming a film over her eyes. The springs strained as she lifted herself higher on her knees to reach his eye-level. "Tell me what's wrong! Please!" Her tone was imploring to the point of begging, and it made his heart grow cold. She had to know. He wasn't talking to her comfortably. He was hiding his fear of her, the friendship that was spoiled by a mortifying experience. She'd never be able to look him in the eye! He'd never return her embrace! She'd be left riding on Kirara's back forever, her first love never to be requited!

He didn't answer her, only growled and balled his fist in his lap. _Gods… no! _She felt her heart stop beating and instead lulled to something of a flicker in pain. It no longer had a reason to beat. She turned to her own misery, wallowing in the hell that was to become her life from here on out. One without her close friend. Her natural fit. Her hanyou.

Silence filled the room. She'd fallen into about the fifth level of the hell titled "Kagome's World" when his voice broke it. "Hey…" he said gruffly, waiting for her attention. It'd taken some consideration as to how to side-step answering her question yet still solve the problem.

He looked her right in the eye and said, "Would you get me off in your bath?"

Well _that_ was the last thing she'd ever expected to hear out of his mouth, ever. "INUYASHA!" she shrieked angrily, smashing the hilt of his own sword against his head. "You pervert! Where did you even _learn_ such dirty words? Absolutely not!" She was reminded of a particular lecher who he might have been parroting. Under her sudden rage, however, relief flooded her that he was only acting of perversion rather than hatred. Their relationship had changed, but at least it hadn't changed in the horrifyingly cold way she'd first thought. If not cold, it appeared that only left hot… which had her terrified and intrigued.

Inuyasha truly didn't understand why he had been hit, it was just a simple request. He was vaguely reminded of those tense first days he'd known Kagome and he'd told her "_take off those clothes."_ He'd been hit with a boulder and called a pig, and this was close enough to set off the déjà vu effect. "Ow, bitch! What was that for!?" he growled, rubbing his head and wincing one golden eye shut. He thought about his words and truly didn't get the double entendre to them.

Kagome felt her face hot with anger and embarrassment. "I'm not about to explain to you the meaning of 'getting off'!" she cried.

Oh, now he got it. "Damn it Kagome, you know that isn't what I meant!" Clearly, she didn't, judging by the full-body blush she was sporting. He was lucky to not have been sat to the core of the earth and burned to a crisp. It seemed the destruction of her bed was the only thing stopping her. His mouth defended his earlier request's innocence by baring fang to her, "You smell like me! There is no way we can go back like smelling like we…" he trailed off, fear gripping him. _Shit…!_

"But don't I smell like you all the time? You let me ride on your back, don't you?" She demanded, wondering what had him all worked up.

He shook his head no, but that wasn't good enough. She stared at him with a firm questioning glance, suspicion quirking her brow. He made a nervous sound. How did he put it delicately that it smelled like they had certainly been _examining_ one another because of their scents being shared and the linger of their desire tainted and misled anyone –humans included—who caught a whiff? "We smell like we… we'd been so close… Shippo would be misled by the lingering scent of your…" he growled, unable to start or finish a single thought. He could just hear the runt: _Inuyasha, why does Kagome smell so much like momma did when daddy sent me to play?_ He cringed as his mental Shippo reached to grab Kagome's hand and instead opted to sniff it questioningly.

Kagome squirmed under his knowing gaze, the effort making her thighs stick together and peel away. She got redder, if that's even possible, and thankfully she wasn't the only one. "Yeah, yeah, got your drift!" she breathed shrilly, shaking her head all around to clear her mind of the thoughts racing through it. An eye glanced open and absently followed his gaze to her hand and alarm bells went off. _But I washed my hands…!_ She was mortified, and looking to defend herself against someone who's senses were clearly stronger than hers and had her feeling vulnerable. "Hmph! Jerk. You make it sound like I'm the only one whose body's betrayed them," she said accusatorily over crossed arms.

He spluttered something at her, the offensive being turned his way. Having nothing good to come back with, and 'keh' would have sounded too white-flagged which was absolutely not his take on this, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, "Where're you going with this, Kagome?" His ears flattened on his head.

She paused, not actually sure where she _was_ going with this. Perhaps she was fighting just for the sake of fighting. It was their comfort zone, like it or not. She had him pressed against the wall, her body held at an angle so her face was in his without their bodies touching (dangerous ground, mind you). "You need the bath more than me!" she said patronizingly, giving his chest a poke for good measure, "Maybe _you_ should be getting _me_ off in the tub!"

Honest mistake. She had accidentally echoed the words he'd said before with the same meaning. Luckily, the haughty tone she'd used to deliver those obscene words made her come across as taunting rather than seductive. Not to say he wasn't seduced, but that was an unintentional side effect of him understanding the meaning of the phrase. She winced as though she had been stricken across the face, her humiliation only rising. One eye peeked open to gauge his reaction, since his silence was freaking her out worse, and saw that he was horrified.

Except he wasn't looking at her. He wasn't stunned so much by her words as he was by something to his far left. Kagome followed his glance to the doorway and she saw her family—mother at the front, grandfather at the side, and Souta beside him. All had varying shades of shock and awe on their faces. _Honestly! Does no one know how to knock in this house?! _

Kagome's mother was chuckling behind her palm, causing the two quarrelers to exchange petrified glances and look back to the dreaded words, "Don't let us interrupt you. Inuyasha, dear, so glad to know you're alright! You had us very worried." Her arm was up to block Souta from running in and throwing his arms around the hanyou's neck. Kagome opened her mouth to question and her mother silenced her with a wave, "Your Grandfather told me. Come on down for breakfast when you're done!" The sweetly saccharine tone to her voice as she disappeared down the hall with the two in tow was laced with innuendo and brought those blushes back to wan faces.

"Inuyasha?" she said, voice even as possible.

"Yes?" He still stared at the phantoms in the open doorway.

"We never speak of this again to anyone." She was staring too.

"Agreed."


End file.
